Programmatic. What a word. Programmatic is one of those of those words you drop around your friends to impress them. But you have to make sure that you use it in the right context. You never want to use big words in the wrong way, it just makes you look unintelligent. Programmatic means (according to Google) of the nature of or according to a program, schedule, or method.

Back in the olden days, when people had to walk barefoot 5 miles to school in the snow, there was no programmatic ad buying. Every  time someone wanted to purchase an ad online, they had to deal with manual RFP’s, negotiation orders, and insertion orders to purchase digital media. Nowadays, you can purchase ads over the computer, instead of in person (it is a little more complex than that, but that will suffice for now). Check out the video below, where they discuss programmatic ad buying like you are 8-years old.

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1

I recently read an interesting blog post from Forrester.com about programmatic ad buying. Joyce believes that major brands and massive holding companies budgets will increase within the next couple of years. Programmatic ad buying is going to be a larger portion of these companies marketing budgets. Proctor & Gamble is seeking to by 70% to 75% of digital ads programmatically by the end of the year. WHAT!!! Leave some for the little guys, jeeze.

Joyce also believe that programmatic ad buying is going to become present in video and TV. These ad sellers are noticing that programmatic is becoming a huge part of these companies marketing budgets. They want a piece of this pie, and they are currently pre-heating the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Joyce states that their is going to be a stronger emphasis on individual-based targeting is where the advertising industry is headed. Facebook has had great success with this since their release of Atlas. Advertisers want to be able to effectively advertise over cross-device platforms. The ability to tie devices online and offline will change the media channel game forever.

Programmatic ad buying can be a complex subject. Like the name “programmatic” makes me think of problematic, which makes me think that its going to be a problem to learn, but in actuality, it is a problem, a problem in the sense of being good (hopefully I didn’t lose you there). Programmatic is the new bad boy in the digital marketing world. Yeah, that programmatic below.

The guys and girls over at AdWeek, are a bunch of great guys and girls because they care about how intellectual you are. They want to see you succeed and become the greatest digital marketer to ever touch a keyboard. They created an article titled, Programmatic For Dummies. In this article they talk about programmatic ad buying, the importance of it, where it is headed, and much more.

“Programmatic is a catchall term that many people are using to categorize everything from behavioral and intent-based targeting to real-time bidding and exchange-based buying of inventory” – Peter Nayor, Former EVP at NBCUniversal. Real-time bidding and exchange-based buying of inventory are two big components when it comes to programmatic ad buying. Real-time bidding (RTB) is not the same as programmatic. The main difference is value. Programmatic is about using data, tech, and software for getting more for every dollar spent. This is what really gets the client happy. Think of programmatic as the NY Stock exchange. It contains the same elements, just different names.

Automation is one aspect that of programmatic ad buying that really helps it excel. But the next step is improving the advertisements. You want to be able to sell a pair of Common Projects men’s shoes to someone who love high-end fashion, not someone who faint when they saw the price tag.

I believe that I am very creative. AdWeek had a section called, How does creativity fit into this world?, and it really shouted at me. Creativity is still going to present when it comes to programmatic ad buying. Even though Google is known for being algorithm-ruled, they are pushing for programmatic creativity. The umbrella initiative that they have created is called, Art, Copy, & Code. That name just seems very Google-esque.

Another topic that I believe is worth talking about is native advertising. There is a fantastic podcast called, StartUp, where one man by the name of Alex Blumberg documents his experience starting his first, well, Startup. Blumberg uses a different type of advertising called native advertising. In typical advertising, the host would stop talking, and then the recorded advertisement would take over. But with native advertising, the host intertwines the advertisement into his talk. They make it almost seem like they are doing it for free. Which can get a lot of backlash. They got in trouble for interviewing a kid about his website, and they didn’t clarify that they were going to use it in the advertisement, and people freaked out on twitter because they it was misleading and they couldn’t tell if it was content or an advertisement. Except Blumberg gets paid by MailChimp $6,000 per episode. That is nuts!!! It makes me wonder what the customer acquisition costs are like for MailChimp. I didn’t know MailChimp had it like that.

Anyways, native advertising is a new form of advertising that I am sure you will notice more often. I listen to another podcast called, Brilliant Idiots. It is quite hilarious, and they actually participate in native advertising. They are sponsored by a product called, NatureBox. They integrate it ever so smoothly, and simply have a conversation about it. They crack jokes, they tell stories about it, and it makes you want to go out and buy a box of peanut butter nom-nom’s. But I could see their being controversy since the way they integrate it into their show it also makes it seem like content.

Digital marketing is changing so fast fam. If you are trying to keep up with the times, make sure to follow this blog, or check it every Tuesday and Thursday. Until next time fellow smarketer…